Investigating the citizens’ views and perceptions about the urban forest infrastructure and services of Komotini, Greece

Abstract

Urban and suburban forests are vital for the citizens’ quality of life. Several beneficial functions of forests are provided to the city dwellers if the proper infrastructures and services are efficiently designed or improved in urban forests. The case study investigates the urban forest of Komotini city in Greece according to its citizens’ views. The assess the existing infrastructures and with the use of hierarchical log-linear analysis the typology of their visit, the infrastructural status and safety issues are associated to provide a better understanding in the citizens’ attitudes. Also factor analysis is applied, while random sampling was implemented in the research. Major findings reveal that certain policies should be designed for the effectively utilization of the urban forest for fitness and recreation reasons. Also, the safety conditions ought to be enhanced as most of the citizens are unsatisfied.